The present invention relates to network switching, and more particularly, this invention relates to a network switch making use of a pass-through converged network adaptor (CNA).
Ethernet switches allow multiple hosts with Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) to be connected together. All the interconnected entities, including the Ethernet switches, exchange Ethernet packets for communications. However, in many switching systems, it may become advantageous to connect external hosts using peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) plug-in cards to communicate with each other and/or control a portion or the whole of the switching system. Using current Ethernet switching systems and Ethernet switches, it is difficult to properly interconnect PCIe hosts and Ethernet hosts together on the same switching system.